Enterprise infrastructure changes constantly. Workloads migrate to the cloud. Companies merge. AI pipelines spin up overnight. Regulatory scope expands into new geographies.
But the threat surface doesn't wait for your next procurement cycle.
Traditional licensing wasn't built for the current IT landscape. In the old model, you negotiate product by product, lock in capacity upfront, and spend the next two years managing the gap between what you bought and what you actually need. You overbuy in one place and end up with shelfware. You under-buy somewhere else and unprotected workloads sit exposed while a new contract winds through approvals. Either outcome is a loss: wasted spend on one side, real security exposure on the other.
Drawdown licensing has proven itself in cybersecurity. But until now, it hasn't existed for cyber resilience. To change that, today we're introducing Rubrik Flex, a commit-and-draw-down commercial model that extends across your data, identity, and AI security footprint. Now you can pre-negotiate rates, make a single multi-year commitment, and activate the right protection exactly when and where it's needed.
The Problem With Point-in-Time Licensing
Traditional licensing forces you to make a bet about the future. You estimate the workloads, identity surfaces, and AI pipelines you'll need to protect three years out, and you lock that estimate into a contract.
This bet is almost always wrong. If you carry that contract into the future, there’s an excellent chance that the environment you're protecting at year three looks nothing like the one you bought licenses for at year zero.
For example, you can’t always predict things like accelerating cloud migration. You may not forsee an acquisition that brings a new subsidiary onto the network. You may create a new, critical workload type that wasn't on the roadmap when the deal was signed. You may want to adopt new technology, like AI agents, and require new governance that traditional contracts don’t necessarily anticipate.
Those gaps cost you in three ways. First, you pay for capacity you never use. You also burn cycles renegotiating every time the environment shifts. Ultimately, every workload waiting in the procurement queue is a workload running without protection.
How Rubrik Flex Works
Rubrik Flex works through three mechanics.
Deploy as you need: You pre-negotiate rates across the Rubrik platform and make a single multi-year commitment. If you add a new workload, you can draw down from the pool without a new procurement cycle or contract renegotiation.
Structured swap windows: Environments don't just grow, they shift. A VMware estate may migrate to Azure or you may consolidate your data centers. An acquisition may bring a different infrastructure into the mix. Swap windows let you redirect your Flex investment as the environment changes, without reopening the contract.
One agreement, full platform: A single Flex agreement covers your data, identity, and AI security footprint. That means only one contract instead of ten—and one renewal cycle instead of a calendar full of them.
The Business Case
For finance, IT, and security leaders, Rubrik Flex changes what licensing makes possible.
Finance gets predictability without locking in the wrong mix. You commit to rates and a multi-year investment upfront, but you don't have to predict which products you'll need three years out. The commitment decision and the allocation decision are decoupled.
IT gets velocity. When a new workload, region, or business unit comes online, you activate coverage immediately without the need for a new order or approval cycle. The infrastructure team stops waiting on procurement to deploy what they already paid for.
Security gets the exposure window closed. Coverage moves at the speed of the environment, not the speed of contracts. Workloads don't sit unprotected while a purchase order winds through approvals.
Built for Large Enterprises Managing Complex Environments
Rubrik Flex is built for enterprises with environments that don't stand still. Or simply: businesses that can't predict three years out where the next protection requirement will land.
Cyber resilience means staying one step ahead of every change in the business: new workloads, new identities, new AI surfaces, new attacks. Rubrik Flex is finally the licensing model built to keep you there.
Learn more about Rubrik Flex: Download the Data Sheet